


I hate that you know me so well

by LittleQueenTrashMouth



Series: Dialogue Prompt Oneshots [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Nerd Azula, Nothing explicit but it's Ozai, Popular Jock Aang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-22
Updated: 2020-12-22
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:14:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28228209
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LittleQueenTrashMouth/pseuds/LittleQueenTrashMouth
Summary: At the beginning of her second year, a boy sat down across from her in one of the campus cafes. Azula had been eating alone, like she always did, and crossly looked up from her book to tell him to buzz off.He spoke first. “Hey, I think you’re in my organic chemistry class. I’m Aang.”***Azula is struggling to make friends in college, when another pre-med student takes matters into his own hands.
Relationships: Aang/Azula (Avatar)
Series: Dialogue Prompt Oneshots [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2123589
Comments: 27
Kudos: 114





	I hate that you know me so well

**Author's Note:**

  * For [avatraang](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avatraang/gifts).



> So this is another one of my dialogue prompts, given to me by the lovely and talented Rey (avatraang)! The prompt was “You make me want things I can’t have" for the ship Azula/Aang. Please enjoy!

Azula was not doing great in college.

It wasn’t the classes that were the problem. She excelled in her schoolwork, even after she tested out of most of her beginning courses. If anything, she was more than happy with her education, smugly sitting in classes full of seniors when she was seventeen years old, and still getting top grades. She was already on track to graduating early, even with her double major of pre-med and business. No, Azula’s failings were all social, and it was a much bigger deal than she had ever thought it would be.

When Mai and Ty Lee had ended up going to a different university after high school, Azula had brushed them off, assuming she’d find equally loyal friends among her thousands of classmates. It was a rude awakening to find that, in fact, most people found her overbearing and off-putting. It took way too long for her to wrangle an invite to a party in her freshman year, and when she finally got in she spent most of the night sulking in a corner. She told herself it didn’t matter, and spent the rest of the year throwing herself at her schoolwork.

It did matter. She was dreadfully, painfully, achingly lonely. 

At the beginning of her second year, a boy sat down across from her in one of the campus cafes. Azula had been eating alone, like she always did, and crossly looked up from her book to tell him to buzz off. 

He spoke first. “Hey, I think you’re in my organic chemistry class. I’m Aang.” He held out a hand for her to shake, a hand that had a blue arrow tattooed on it, pointing down to his fingertips. Azula usually didn’t pay attention to who else was in her classes, but this guy definitely stood out. He was tall, and lanky, but didn’t have that wobbly “baby deer” lack of grace like most guys their age. His head was shaved bald, also decorated with a blue arrow tattoo. She had remembered him laughing before class started, clear and bright as a bell. 

“What do you want?” she asked curtly, already suspicious. 

“Just wanted to say hi,” he laughed. “That class is rough.”

“Not for me.” 

Aang blinked at her cold response, and his warm smile wavered, replaced by a flicker of doubt. “Sorry, I can leave. I just noticed you were always alone in class, and....anyway, it was nice to meet you.” He stood up to go, and Azula was overcome with panic. She had fantasized often about someone deeming her worthy, paying attention to her, initiating a conversation with her. And the first time somebody had finally done that, she had driven him away in seconds. 

Azula was tired of being alone.

“You can stay,” she said quickly, eyes focused down at her plate. She waited for him to leave anyway, already burning with the humiliation of begging him not to. The legs of the chair scraped against the floor as he settled back in his seat, scooting closer to the table. A quick glance up revealed that he was grinning again, and she struggled to match his expression. He didn’t shy away as she bared her teeth. “I’m Azula.”

He sat with her for two hours, probing her with questions and listening to the answers devoutly. After being so starved of attention for a year, it was almost overwhelming. Aang’s attention was like an unrelenting spotlight; he never looked at his phone or let his focus wander away from her. She knew she was still being surly, still so mistrustful of his intentions. Aang took it in stride, coaxing her to talk more and more until the words flowed freely. He was also majoring in pre-med, and asked why she wanted to become a doctor. It was a prestigious career, she explained. It was something she could make a lot of money doing, she had the dedication and intelligence to make it happen, she was rational and had a stomach of steel. Afterwards, she shyly asked why he had chosen the field.

“I want to help people,” he answered simply, and the wall around Azula’s heart cracked, just a little bit.

* * *

In their next organic chemistry class he waved her over, explaining that none of his friends were in the class and he hated sitting by himself. Azula sourly wondered if he was going to spend the entire class distracting her, but he was a surprisingly good student. She found herself spending a good portion of the class watching him, fingers flying across his laptop keys as he took notes. 

“Why don’t you write anything down?” he asked after lecture as he packed away his computer.

“I record all of the lectures and listen to them later, then take my notes then,” Azula explained, pointing to the small black device at the corner of her desk. It was an expensive recorder, to be able to pick up the professor’s voice from so far away, but she could afford it. “That way I know how the entire lecture is going to go, and I can make a more cohesive outline.”

“You listen to every lecture twice?”

“Yes.” That was a lie; she listened to every lecture at least three times, both for her own academic success and to fill up every inch of her free time. His astonished tone was making her feel defensive, though, and the lie slipped easily from her mouth.

“That’s really cool, no wonder you’re doing so well,” he chuckled, seemingly unperturbed by her obsessive studying habits.

“If you’re having trouble, I could help you out.” The words felt clunky coming from her mouth, but she remained cool. “I have plenty of time.”

“Sure, that’d be great!” he beamed at her as he slung his backpack onto one shoulder.

* * *

They usually studied in her apartment; since he was a year below her, he lived on campus in the dormitories and had a roommate. Azula, by contrast, lived off campus in a lavish apartment by herself. Aang liked to come over and lament that she never used her nice, fancy kitchen to cook, meanwhile he was stuck in the dorms with a microwave and a hot plate. He liked to make himself comfortable in the living room, textbooks and papers spread around him in a chaotic semicircle while he sat on the floor.

“How do you learn anything like this?” Azula asked sourly, kicking a stack of binder paper out of her way so she could sit in her chair.

“I have a system,” he replied. His system repulsed Azula, but it seemed to work okay for him, since he continued to get all A’s.

* * *

He got mad at her, once. They were discussing where to order lunch from, and he reminded her that he was a vegetarian. She had scornfully informed him of the environmental damage that agriculture did, that humans were designed to eat meat, that it was pointless and stupid to avoid it to maintain some mythical moral high ground. The words were parroted from her father, she knew, but he was usually right about such things. Instead of laughing and shaking his head like he usually did, Aang’s face shut down, his eyes turning cold and stormy.

“I’m leaving,” he announced, standing up.

“What?” she gasped, shocked at the sudden turn. “Why?”

“You’re being very rude to me, and I don’t appreciate it. That’s not how friends treat each other.” Though he didn’t yell at her, the words hit her like a blow, especially that last sentence. Friends? Were they friends?

“Wait!” she shouted as he had his hand on the doorknob. “I’m sorry.” Those words, that she had said so few times in her life she could count every instance, fell easily from her lips. Desperation clawed up her throat, frantic at the thought that she could lose Aang. She didn’t want to go back to being alone.

He hesitated, unconvinced.

“ _Please._ ”

He stayed.

* * *

She got mad at him, once. Somehow Zuko had come up in the conversation, and Aang was asking her questions about him. He was an only child, he explained, and he had always wondered what it would be like to have siblings. Azula was dismissive of his idealistic dreams of having a best friend that you grew up with; Zuko was fine, but he was a whiny baby that followed their mother around like an eternal duckling, even after he grew up. He cried every time their father quizzed them on their school work, even though it was clearly Zuko’s fault that he could never remember anything, forcing their father to whip his fingers with a metal ruler.

Aang turned an interesting shade of green. “He hit you?” 

“Not me, not that often,” Azula shrugged, uneasy about his reaction. “I actually studied, Zuko was always day-dreaming.”

“That’s...you know that’s not okay, right?” He sounded angry, which was making Azula angry. 

“God, you’re overreacting,” she said snidely, burying her face into her textbook to show that she was done talking about this. “It wasn’t like he beat us with a belt every day. It was only when we deserved it.”

“You never deserved it!” It was terrifying, how Aang didn’t yell but still managed to make his fury known. “Did you ever report him?”

“What? Of course not. He didn’t do anything wrong.”

“Of course he did! That wasn’t fair on you!”

“Stop it!” Azula shrieked, finally losing her temper. “It’s none of your business, and you don’t even know my dad!”

“I don’t have to know him, that’s—”

“Get out!” 

“Azula, come on—”

“I said _get out!_ ” She threw her textbook at him, and only his forearms swiftly coming up to cover his head protected it from hitting him in the face. Tears prickled in the corners of her eyes, and she was breathing heavily. Aang looked at her with so much pity and love that it made her feel sick. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered. As usual, he defied her expectations. Instead of leaving right away, he knelt down and embraced her, resting his chin on the top of her head. “I’m sorry.”

He left. The next day, she texted him and asked if he wanted to study. He came over, bearing a coffee and pastry for her from the cafe. They didn’t talk about her family.

* * *

It was unclear when exactly she had fallen in love with him. Maybe it was inevitable, a tired trope, that the awkward lonely girl would go all moony-eyed for the first guy that gave her any attention. It was _so_ embarrassing, and when she did realize it she vowed to keep it a secret, forever. Her usual standoffishness worked in her favor; Aang didn’t seem to notice anything strange when she stiffened up every time he touched her, or looked away when he paid her a compliment. He was so naturally affectionate it made her heart ache, but she refused to let him see her weakness. It was only at night, when she was alone in her bed, that she closed her eyes and pretended that he spent time with her not because she was helping him with school, but because he actually liked her back.

They spent more time together, outside of studying at her apartment. He invited her to hang out with his friends, a group of people that was ever-shifting and ever-growing, because everybody liked Aang. The first time Azula met up with them at the park, it seemed to be the core group.

“Hi, Azula, right?” A beautiful girl with a luxurious mane of silky hair greeted her first. “We’ve heard a lot about you! I’m Katara.”

“Oh yeah, you’re the one keeping Twinkle Toes from failing organic chemistry,” an equally stunning girl commented. Azula noted the girl’s pale green eyes, and the fluffy dog in a service animal vest curled at her feet. 

Yet another pretty girl greeted her, and Azula was beginning to feel hot jealousy curdle in her gut. Of course Aang would be surrounded by beautiful, confident people, because he himself was beautiful and confident. Her anxiety was only slightly relieved by the guy sitting next to the last girl, who had a hand casually wrapped around her waist. 

Azula sat down at the picnic table, as close to the end as she could, wondering if her limbs had always been this rigid and gawky. Aang sat down across from her and immediately engaged in a conversation with the couple. He had told her everybody’s name before they had gotten to the park, and Azula deduced that this was Sokka and Suki. 

A glance to the side made her start; Katara was leaning in way too close to her. “It’s nice that you’re helping Aang out,” she said, a bit too eagerly. “That class sounds pretty hard.”

Azula bit back her usual response, which was that it was hard for everybody except her. “I didn’t do that much,” she said awkwardly. “I bought him a planner, he seems to struggle with the days of the week.”

Her weak joke elicited a bark of laughter from Katara and Toph, the latter of whom was clearly listening in. Azula caught Katara and Aang exchanging an enigmatic look, before his gaze slid over to her and he flashed her a smile that warmed her to her core.

“They liked you,” he reassured her as they walked away, back to her car. Azula wasn’t sure about _that,_ the conversation had frequently stuttered and stopped when she opened her mouth, and she saw Katara press her lips together a few times in a way that Azula took to mean she was biting back a smart remark. But she was trying, and they were clearly trying, and Aang had a big grin on his face like he was the happiest guy in the world.

* * *

It all came to a head at the end of the semester, when they were studying for finals. Aang had practically moved into Azula’s apartment, claiming that she had better internet and better snacks than the dorms. Azula was more than comfortable having people use her for her stuff, and didn’t complain. 

“My brain is full, I physically can’t learn anything else,” Aang yawned, slamming his laptop shut. “If I try I’m going to forget my own name.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.” Azula didn’t look up from her notebook, which contained pages and pages of neatly drawn molecules that she had already memorized. 

“Sure it does,” Aang argued cheerfully, his eyes sparkling at the glare that she threw his way. “I’m going to head home, and you should go to sleep.”

“I’m fine.” Azula turned her attention back to her notebook. The incoherent shout she made when Aang snatched it away from her was involuntary, and the futile swipes she made to try to grab it back while he held it over her head were very undignified. 

“It’s 11:30, and you already know everything,” Aang said firmly, continuing to hold the notebook out of her reach. “Go to bed.”

“The final’s at nine tomorrow morning, I have plenty of time.” She scowled at him for a moment more before finally relenting. She was getting pretty tired. “Fine, I’ll go to bed.”

He handed back the notebook and began cleaning up his things, haphazardly sweeping mountains of papers into his backpack. “Are you doing anything after the final?”

Azula was cleaning up her own study supplies, which were a lot more organized than his. “No, it’s my last one.”

“Mine too. Do you want to go grab some food afterwards to celebrate?”

“Sure. Want to meet here at one? I can drive.”

“Sounds good, it’s a date!” Azula froze, staring at Aang as he cluelessly finished packing up and put his backpack on. Something about the time, or the exhaustion, or the stress of her entire future hanging in the balance, made her snap.

“Stop doing that.”

“Stop doing what?” he repeated, genuinely confused. That only made her angrier.

“Calling it a date. Spending all your time with me. Pretending that you like me.”

His face fell. “Azula, what are you talking about? Of course I like you.”

“Not like that! Not the way I like you!” Her voice sounded petulant to her own ears, like she was a child throwing a temper tantrum. “You...I know it doesn’t mean anything to you, because everyone likes you, but it’s not fair to me.”

“What isn’t fair?” His voice was gentle, understanding, compassionate. She hated it.

“You make me want things I can’t have.” She refused to meet his gaze. “That’s not fair.”

Silence. It pressed down on Azula like a weighted blanket, compressing her chest, making it hard to breathe. It wasn’t fair, she idly mused; she thought confessing your feelings made you feel lighter, not heavier. She stubbornly stared at her feet and waited for his reaction, for him to laugh, for him to leave. 

“You can have it.” Her head flew up to find that he had moved towards her, earnestly looking into her eyes.

“What?” It didn’t feel real. This couldn’t be real.

“I’m saying, you can have it.” He took another step closer, bringing him so near that she could feel his body heat. “All of it.”

Their first attempt at a kiss was a disaster. She had risen up on her tip toes to meet him, at the same time that he swooped down to her, so she caught his nose and he caught the air by her chin. She huffed in frustration and he laughed, bringing his hands up to cup her face. He moved slowly, so sure of himself. 

“Hold still,” he breathed, before he slotted his lips against hers, perfectly, like they were adjoining puzzle pieces. His hands were warm against her cheeks and his lips even warmer still. Azula’s eyes fluttered shut and she thought that, maybe this once, it was okay to be a tired trope. 

The next day, she aced her organic chemistry final. Aang arrived exactly at 1 PM for their date. She had changed into a pretty red dress that she had never been able to wear, and his eyes glowed when he saw her. 

“You look amazing,” he murmured, and he kissed her, and every carefully calibrated date topic she had come up with flew out of her head. 

“You do too,” she stammered. Lucky for her, he seemed endeared by her awkwardness. He draped one arm over her shoulders and tucked her against his side. 

Azula had never felt so safe.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi/suggest more writing prompts on tumblr [@praetorqueenreyna](https://praetorqueenreyna.tumblr.com/)!


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